Rutgers names LSU president as its next leader
Arnold Korotkin
Rutgers University selected Louisiana State University President William F. Tate IV as the school’s new president Monday, ending a national search for the next leader of New Jersey’s state university.
Tate will be Rutgers’ 22nd president and oversee one of the oldest and largest universities in the nation, with more than 69,000 students on three campuses and a $5 billion annual budget.
The new president was approved by the Rutgers Board of Governors with the consent of the Rutgers Board of Trustees and introduced at a joint meeting in New Brunswick.
Tate, 60, has been president of Louisiana State University since 2021. Like Rutgers, Louisiana State is a statewide university system. The school currently enrolls more than 50,000 students statewide.
He will take over July 1, replacing outgoing Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, who announced in September he would step down after five years on the job.
Holloway cited concerns about the safety of his family as one of his reasons for leaving after a tumultuous term that included the school’s first faculty strike, a no-confidence vote by the Rutgers University Senate and a multi-day pro-Palestinian student encampment.
Tate takes over Rutgers at a complex time as the university is facing steep funding cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration and pressures to cut diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Rutgers has also clashed with Trump officials on several issues, including attempts to revoke the visas of international students.
Tate earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northern Illinois University, a master’s degree in mathematical sciences education from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a Ph.D. in mathematics education from the University of Maryland, according to his biography on LSU’s website.
Tate’s new salary was not immediately released.
When Holloway announced he was stepping down, he had a base salary of $888,540, with bonus pay of $214,106, for a total of more than $1.1 million a year, according to his contract.
Holloway is leaving Rutgers to take over as the next president and chief executive officer of the Henry Luce Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit started by the co-founder of Time magazine.
In addition to running the state university, the new president will take over for Holloway as Rutgers’ chief fundraiser.
Holloway was an enthusiastic fundraiser who outpaced his two predecessors in donations to the school’s endowment and other projects. In fiscal year 2024, Rutgers raised $250 million from more than 34,000 unique donors — 7,500 of whom donated to Rutgers for the first time, a Rutgers spokesperson said.
In October, Rutgers hired WittKieffer, a national search firm experienced in finding leaders for large public universities, to help find its next president. The firm agreed to be paid either $325,000 or 31% of the new president’s total first-year compensation, whichever is lower.
The lengthy search left room for speculation about who might ultimately land the job.
Several sources told NJ Advance Media last month that Gov. Phil Murphy‘s name was entered into the mix.
The 67-year-old governor was floated as a candidate to take the helm of the nearly 260-year-old institution and even approached about it, according to multiple sources questioned last month about rumors swirling in political circles.
But Murphy allegedly said he wasn’t interested in trying to get the Rutgers job.
“I’m quite confident he’s focused on completing his term as Governor and has no interest in this role,” George S. Helmy, Murphy’s former chief of staff and a member of the Rutgers Board of Governors, said last month.
The finalists for the job were kept confidential by the search firm and the Rutgers search committee.
Those up for the job included an “exceptional group of highly qualified candidates, including current presidents of other large public universities,” Rutgers spokeswoman Dory Devlin said.
Amy L. Towers, chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors, and Alberto Cuitiño, dean of the School of Engineering, co-chaired the presidential search committee. The rest of the committee was made up of a mix of students, alumni, faculty and staff.
Staff writers Brent Johnson, Ted Sherman and Steve Politi contributed to this report.